Donors rally to give San Jose bride dream wedding

SAN JOSE -- Told she has only months to live, Jen Bulik and Jeff Lang couldn't wait to marry. The gorgeous ceremony she once envisioned now seemed out of reach, so they figured on a simple backyard gathering with folding tables and paper plates.

But in classic Silicon Valley style, the Mountain View couple's touching love-conquers-all story quickly spread through online social media. On Saturday, they tied the knot in the stylish ceremony she'd hoped for at a park near her parents' San Jose home. She got her wish after receiving more than $50,000 in donated services arranged by a wedding planner who was moved by their story after learning about it on Facebook.

"It's like a dream," said the new Mrs. Lang, seated beside her husband, during a break in the reception held at her parents' home.

The path to Saturday's nuptials began early this year when Bulik, a 35-year-old hairstylist, was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. Lang, a yoga instructor and her boyfriend of six years, said they weren't going to let that get in the way of their plans to marry.

"Given the short timetable we were given," he said, "we wanted to do it a lot quicker. People came out of the woodwork to help us."

One of Bulik's friends asked about donations for catering, photography and other services for the ceremony on a Facebook wedding group page. That's where Emeryville wedding planner Erica Ota first learned about the couple about three weeks ago.

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Ota met with Lang and Bulik's parents -- Bulik was at the hospital undergoing chemotherapy -- and said she was "just incredibly moved." That evening she looked at a Pinterest page where Bulik had been posting online images of the "rustic chic" wedding she had imagined.

"She had been pinning these pictures while she was sick," Ota said. "She would never ask for it. I said to myself, 'This is just a vision of a beautiful wedding. Why not give it to her?'"

Ota hit the phones to rally colleagues in the wedding business. She got some 40 vendors to donate services -- catering, photography, flowers, music -- in less than two weeks, a feat that ordinarily takes six months to coordinate.

Elements from Bulik's Pinterest page adorned the ceremony and reception -- from succulent plants to a canoe filled with iced drinks.

They held the ceremony among a circle of friends at Saratoga Creek Park. Anne Hefron, a yoga instructor who introduced the couple, officiated. As they exchanged vows, they shouted "I do!"

"Just to see her face when she said her vows was so touching," said groomsman Aaron Goodnow, who co-owns the Yoga Belly studio where Lang is an instructor. "They just want the day to be about celebration and love."

Afterward, St. Gabriel's Celestial Brass Band led the procession on a jazz march to the house for the reception for the 120 guests. Neighbors kindly donated their backyard to create more room for the reception, even knocking down part of a fence so guests could walk through.

The couple plan to spend a few days in Half Moon Bay but are planning a family vacation to Hawaii.

A fundraising campaign on www.giveforward.com for "Jen's Wedding Wish and Cancer Fund" has raised nearly $28,000 from almost 500 donors. The couple were clearly moved by the generosity others have shown for them.